Triple-GPU systems are still a fair rarity in the consumer space, but frequently discussed and coveted by hard-core gamers all over. In a recent benchmark by Toms Hardware, they put NVidia’s Triple-SLI against AMD’s Crossfire 3-way to see which one performs better. Much to my own surprise, the AMD solution not only yields slightly better performance, but much better efficiently with a vastly lower power consumption and heat output.
CrossFire came out with a huge overall scaling lead over SLI, and removing the one title that didn’t reflect that average would have made the lead even bigger. Superior scaling allowed two mid-priced Radeon HD 6950s to approximate the performance of two higher-cost GeForce GTX 570s, while three HD 6950s took the performance win over three GTX 570s.
If these figures cross over into the Multi-GPU/single-PCB space like the basis of AMD and NVidia’s newest announcements, AMD could have a big win on it’s hands in CrossFire Scaling.
Triple-GPU Scaling: AMD CrossFire Vs. Nvidia SLI : Is Multi-GPU The Game Changer?.
What I take away from this is that unless you have 2560×1600, then you do not even need SLI or CrossFire since the frame rates are 30+ fps. At that point, I would go with whatever card is cheaper, which seems to be the 6950 at about $250.
For a single 2560×1600 monitor, I would fore go the 570 or 6950 and get a Nvidia GTX 580.
For multiple monitors, I would head back to ATI.
Still, it is an interesting article. It would be nice to see it done for multiple monitor setups.